Healthwatch St Helens

Healthwatch is your local watchdog for health and social care services, giving you a voice and making sure your views are heard about the services you use.

What does Healthwatch St Helens do?

Our job is to give local people the opportunity to influence the delivery and design of their local services.

Healthwatch St Helens:

Provides information to the public about local health and social care services and signposts people to other organisations who can advise and support them

Gather views and experiences of local people about the services they have used and highlight trends and gaps in services

Influences the way services are designed, set up and comments on performance

Has a seat on the People’s Board to contribute to local strategy

Has the power to ‘Enter & View’ health and social care services to offer the community’s views on the service they are delivering and make recommendations for change

Passes on information to other local Healthwatch, Healthwatch England and the Care Quality Commission

Current Work:

In 2016, Healthwatch St Helens asked our members and people from our local communities what areas of health & care services they felt we should look at.

The top areas were:

Mental health - this has resulted in a task and finish group focusing on access to services and identifying gaps.

Access to services for people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder – this has resulted in a task and finish group that is finding out what people’s experiences have been of trying to get a diagnosis and access the right support.

We’re also working with our partners at the CCG to encourage local people to make the right choices about where to access treatment for their healthcare needs and joining with other local Healthwatch to find out what prompts people to use A&E.

Our work is decided by what’s important to local people and what they are telling us.

Membership:

You can join Healthwatch St Helens and receive a monthly newsletter containing information events, consultations and what’s happening locally around health and social care. It’s free and you can get involved with the work we do as little or as often as you want to.

About

Halton & St Helens VCA is an infrastructure organisation that provides advice, information and development support services to voluntary, community, not-for-profit and faith organisations and volunteers in the Boroughs of St Helens and Halton.